Target Aus Pulls GTA V From Shelves, For Its "Violence Against Women" - Update

[Tanis]

Why is it a nation founded by the criminal refuse of Britain has such a hard on for censorship?

I REALLY do not 'get' the Australian, government, mindset.

It's...it's like The Tea Baggers of America, minus their love of guns, landed there and took over.

Beyond me, completely beyond me.

 

[EvilRoy]

It still amuses me to see Gamergaters getting pissed off by this.

"We use letter writing campaigns to influence the actions of news outlets hardly any of us frequented but which offended us with their sensibilities?"
"Whoo, yeah! Consumer power baby! I am Gamer, hear me type!"

"A bunch of busybody think-of-the-children types used a letter writing campaign to influence the actions of a business stocking a product hardly any of them were going to buy but which offended their sensibilities?"
"WHOA! Whoa. Can of worms, man! Dangerous precedent right there! Why, it's practically censorship! Domestic terrorism even!"

I think you may be jumping at shadows here dude, people had the same reactions when JT was making claims similar to this with regards to games in general. Not really surprising that people are equally mad now.

Honestly I can barely dredge up the will to care. Target made this decision because they needed a bit of good PR to get eyes on them - videogames just happened to be the easiest limb to remove to do that, and since nobody gives a shit about gamers or game media outside the scene they won't receive any noteworthy backlash. It would be different if this was a movie, since the notion is that everybody watches movies and Target actually has a horse in that race - actual news outlets would get in on it and they would face sizable scrutiny for it.

 

[Neverhoodian]

The whole "violence against women" part smacks more of radical feminists than soccer moms.

https://www.change.org/p/target-withdraw-grand-theft-auto-5-this-sickening-game-encourages-players-to-commit-sexual-violence-and-kill-women?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=191536&alert_id=KLNsvVtEZm_2TAy7BLyrLkl4FVen4Dx6jdEOfc5jWmiunbPseoBVpQ%3D

Here's what I keep seeing as held up as what led to this decision (whether or not it actually played a part in this I don't know), keep in mind it misrepresents the game to a laughable degree

Okay yeah, pretty much what I thought.

Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fuelling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia - and globally.

As always, I'm astounded by the ignorance (perhaps willfully) that video games with mature content are (*gasp*) not meant for kids. In fact, retailers aren't even supposed to sell games like that to minors. You know, just like R-rated movies and the like.

Also, why am I reminded of all the "video games cause school shootings!" accusations that (surprise, surprise) turned out to be bullshit? [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/violent-video-games-dont-lead-to-increases-in-viol/1100-6422421/]

We urge you to follow the example set by the New Zealand?s largest retailer, NZ Warehouse Group, in upholding Corporate Social Responsibility and ethical corporate leadership, by removing these games.

This would also set an example to other stockists of GTA V.

Please put ethics before profits and make a strong statement that you do not condone sexual violence, sexual exploitation or the abuse of women as "entertainment".

"Actually, it's about ethics in retail stores."

 

[deathbydeath]

It still amuses me to see Gamergaters getting pissed off by this.

I'm not much of a Gator, but hell yeah I'm miffed at this. I mean seriously, where are the standards? In the last paragraph the article completely switches from objective fact-delivery to an opinionated soapbox without so much as a blink. I love opinions and editorials as much as the next guy, but keep them out of my damn news.

"Actually, it's about ethics in retail stores."

10/10 QOTY

 

[Cybylt]

Woah woah woah woah... woah.

K-Mart still exists?

How did GTA even make it to Australia, I thought their ratings board shut out games entirely for letting you fight cops.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Remember folks, anything done in a work of fiction is wholly encouraged to be done in real life by those that make it. Any fantasy of any kind is bad because no one is smart or mature enough to leave fantasy at the fantasy. Also remember that any negative portrayal or act acted upon a fictional character from main to NPC is a statement of how to treat anyone even remotely like the fictional character in real life.

These attitudes were jokes when my parents were born. Why do we still have them now?

 

[WhiteNachos]

The soccer mom brigade has convinced major Australian retailer Target to pull Grand Theft Auto V from its store shelves.

Soccer mums? No.

The reason the game is being removed isn't "violence", it's "violence against women". Smells more like radical feminism to me.

It does, I haven't seen the complainers call themselves feminists but given the way they talk, it seems pretty likely that they are.

And I wouldn't call them radical, if the game actually did encourage violence against women and cause it in real life like they claim it wouldn't be that radical to ask Target to stop selling.

What they are is either incredibly ignorant about what's in GTA, or they're lying assholes who want to get rid of GTA because. I think it's the first one, but that still makes them assholes because they're condemning from ignorance, making drastic claims about it and calling for it to be pulled from shelves based off their lack of basic knowledge about the game.

 

[Creator002]

Here's a nice idea: buy GTA V for 8th gen digitally.

It's $109.95 digitally. At EB it's $99.95. At Target, it was less than $80.

 

[WhiteNachos]

It still amuses me to see Gamergaters getting pissed off by this.

"We use letter writing campaigns to influence the actions of news outlets hardly any of us frequented but which offended us with their sensibilities?"
"Whoo, yeah! Consumer power baby! I am Gamer, hear me type!"

"A bunch of busybody think-of-the-children types used a letter writing campaign to influence the actions of a business stocking a product hardly any of them were going to buy but which offended their sensibilities?"
"WHOA! Whoa. Can of worms, man! Dangerous precedent right there! Why, it's practically censorship! Domestic terrorism even!"

Well one of them is lying about what what the people actually said/did, and it's not the gamegaters.

By the way I've never seen a gamegater compare this to domestic terrorism. I have seen someone else compare them to ISIS though.

 

[WhiteNachos]

They aren't coming for out games, they said. No one's trying to censor anything, they said. Man this was upsetting, not for the fact that a company I hate caved in, but because this sets a precedent, and a particularly bad one at that.

No amount of fear mongering is actually going to make this, you know, true.

It still amuses me to see Gamergaters getting pissed off by this.

"We use letter writing campaigns to influence the actions of news outlets hardly any of us frequented but which offended us with their sensibilities?"
"Whoo, yeah! Consumer power baby! I am Gamer, hear me type!"

"A bunch of busybody think-of-the-children types used a letter writing campaign to influence the actions of a business stocking a product hardly any of them were going to buy but which offended their sensibilities?"
"WHOA! Whoa. Can of worms, man! Dangerous precedent right there! Why, it's practically censorship! Domestic terrorism even!"

Well, what did you expect? Consistency?

It's amazing that you don't see how hypocritical this is. You make a blanket statement as if every gamegater had been involved in the letter writing campaign then when some feminists start actually "coming for their games" you dismiss the idea.

Can you Zachary be consistent? Either it's OK to make blanket statements or it's not. Either gamegaters are all hypocrites AND all feminists want to pressure stores into taking away games or we can stick to the reality where it's more nuanced than that.

 

[Zontar]

They aren't coming for out games, they said. No one's trying to censor anything, they said. Man this was upsetting, not for the fact that a company I hate caved in, but because this sets a precedent, and a particularly bad one at that.

No amount of fear mongering is actually going to make this, you know, true.

Oh for the love of god, how much more blatant do they need to get for you to accept the fact they want censorship? Do they need to spell it out for you? If this isn't them trying to prevent games from being sold because they don't like them, then tell me, what is it? What is this action which is a direct attempt to deprive people from being able to buy a product they want? The only way, in my mind, this does not constitute censorship is to use the archaic definition of government censorship (which Australia did have and just recently manage to escape in relation to video games) which does not conform with the current use of the term in regular parlance.

So tell me, what was this?

 

[Zontar]

I think you may be jumping at shadows here dude, people had the same reactions when JT was making claims similar to this with regards to games in general. Not really surprising that people are equally mad now.

It's actually worst then that. Jack Thomson only wanted to make it impossible for minors to play adult rated games, this is an attempt to make it so that no one can play adult rated games.

 

[Zhukov]

By the way I've never seen a gamegater compare this to domestic terrorism. I have seen someone else compare them to ISIS though.

I included that little nugget after reading the 10th post in this very thread.

"On a lot of levels what your looking at is domestic terrorism, albeit using "soft" power rather than "hard" power, and as this kind of thing succeeds it's just going to be more prevalent."

Don't know if he's a gamergater, but since he's straight-facedly ranting about SJWs I'm happy to throw him in the same box.

 

[WhiteNachos]

By the way I've never seen a gamegater compare this to domestic terrorism. I have seen someone else compare them to ISIS though.

I included that little nugget after reading the 10th post in this very thread.

"On a lot of levels what your looking at is domestic terrorism, albeit using "soft" power rather than "hard" power, and as this kind of thing succeeds it's just going to be more prevalent."

Don't know if he's a gamergater, but since he's straight-facedly ranting about SJWs I'm happy to throw him in the same box.

So your only options are "have respect for SJWs" or "gamegater". Man you really like to pigeonhole people. I'm not in either camp.

I'm not a game gator, and I've seen some pretty slimey/stupid SJWs. More than once I've seen one of them claim with a straight face that gay men are only gay because they're misogynists.

 

[Erttheking]

They aren't coming for out games, they said. No one's trying to censor anything, they said. Man this was upsetting, not for the fact that a company I hate caved in, but because this sets a precedent, and a particularly bad one at that.

No amount of fear mongering is actually going to make this, you know, true.

Oh for the love of god, how much more blatant do they need to get for you to accept the fact they want censorship? Do they need to spell it out for you? If this isn't them trying to prevent games from being sold because they don't like them, then tell me, what is it? What is this action which is a direct attempt to deprive people from being able to buy a product they want? The only way, in my mind, this does not constitute censorship is to use the archaic definition of government censorship (which Australia did have and just recently manage to escape in relation to video games) which does not conform with the current use of the term in regular parlance.

So tell me, what was this?

Whose they? These are soccer moms. They're the people who go around screaming "Think of the children." They're old news. Also this is happening in Australia, a country that has also banned and censored games for being violent (L4D) having drugs as as rewards (State of Decay, Fallout 3 {Med-X was normally called Morphine and was changed worldwide} and Saints Row IV) Sex with minors (South Park the Stick of Truth) sex was given as a reward (Witcher 2)

This is old news, old people up to old things. Not the work of "Them" whoever "They" might be.

 

[Briantb]

I played through the campaign twice I cannot remember one time in which there was violence against women unless I actively targeted them vs the men NPCs.

Online play yeah I can see it but I'm like most people and actively hunt down all players regardless of age or sex. (Tend to hunt down the underaged kids more)

 

[marioandsonic]

Guess what Yahtzee has been saying about Australia being squeamish about violence in games wasn't just joking around.

The whole "violence against women" part smacks more of radical feminists than soccer moms.

Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fuelling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia - and globally.

As always, I'm astounded by the ignorance (perhaps willfully) that video games with mature content are (*gasp*) not meant for kids. In fact, retailers aren't even supposed to sell games like that to minors. You know, just like R-rated movies and the like.

They know you can kill men in this game too, right?

 

[Shayman]

Target and Kmart are losing the very few sales they could have made.

 

[ZiggyE]

They know you can kill men in this game too, right?

Pretty sure they know. They just don't care. At least Jack Thompson had the courtesy to not discriminate by sex when it came to violence.